Yun is on her mission to be beautiful.  She knows she is pretty when she has a good hair day and cares to dress up.  So, under her beauty consultant Cece’s mentoring, she has a mission: “The Beauty Project.”

Well, for a while now, she has another project going: “The Happy Project.”  We’re talking the kind of happiness that is unstoppable and unreasonable. … the kind of happiness that is totally independent of any external stimuli…  Somehow, the two  have gotten on the parallel path…

Lately, life has thrown quite a few wrenches into Yun’s  life.  A single mom and  business owner, she is running into financial challenges. Her happiness project is facing a testing…”When life is raining shit, can you be happy?”  Well, she has a few moments of down in the slump crying for the mercy of the god.

On the other hand, “The Beauty Project” is on going.  Yun bought a hot roller and the project started rolling.  Well, we did not say it started rolling smoothly. One roller in her hair here, one there…but it was not orderly or even…pins stuck out here and they stuck out there….just like things stuck out  unevenly in her life ,  the rolling had  a rough and rather a messy start…….

But she sticks to it.   After all the messiness is cleaned up, she looks good. She is as beautiful as she ever been in past days.  “Hmmm, all I need is a hot roller to get my beauty project going.  “Piece of cake!”

What does this have  to do with the her “Happy Project? ”  It turns out that what the “Happy Project” needs is something as simple as the hot roller: the hot attitude.   The hot attitude is the productive mindful attitude in the midst of challenges.  The hot attitude is the attitude Maya Angelou describes in her poem: Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Applying the hot attitude to life  can be awkward at first, just like the unruly hot rollers can be.   But if you really stick to it, beautiful things will come out of  it.

“Bye for Now” from The Two Whos

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